


Episodic

by OwlosaurusRex



Category: The Evil Within (Video Game)
Genre: Blood, Oneshot, Other, Violence, not as shippy as I'd like
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-01
Updated: 2015-06-01
Packaged: 2018-04-02 07:42:19
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,509
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4051939
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/OwlosaurusRex/pseuds/OwlosaurusRex
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"Episodes, that’s what they’d called them, these moments of clarity. It was a transcendent experience, one of power and understanding. Sometimes they were difficult to remember but Joseph always caught the fine details."</p>
            </blockquote>





	Episodic

**Author's Note:**

> A short drabble to practice combat writing cause I'm not great at it. Plus I love some violent Joseph.

Episodes, that’s what they’d called them, these moments of clarity. It was a transcendent experience, one of power and understanding. Sometimes they were difficult to remember but Joseph always caught the fine details.

The sounds are what stuck with him most--the jangle of keys and thud of dead bolts on the heavy precinct doors, the click of his shoes on the tiled floors, and the smooth metallic snap of the magazine in his pistol. The crackle of vertebrae twisting and the harsh report of gunfire still rung in his ears, feeding the eager buzz of whispers there. Certain faces stood out to him too amid the excitement if only because of their persistence. He left them where they fell and only paused to wipe the blood from his glasses.

The rookie was the last of them. He remembered her in pristine clarity and could feel the burn of scratches on his arms from where she’d struggled. Kidman had always seemed like a tough woman and she hadn’t disappointed. The chase, the look of defiance in her eyes had only made it twice as sweet to feel her throat give under his hands, her skull caving against the grungy floors. She looked much more beautiful when she showed some emotion; Joseph concluded and found himself standing at his desk.

Everything had gone far faster than he’d calculated, the rush was fading, the smell of blood growing dull to his senses. He wondered what more he would remember when the day was done. He wondered if he’d still be breathing.

Opening the top drawer of his desk, Joseph took his time in reloading his gun. He looked up at Sebastian’s office, admiring the spatters of blood arching delicately on the tinted windows and wondered how his dear friend was holding up. Joseph hadn’t hit him all that hard, he might even be conscious at this point and just the thought of all that raw rage sent a shiver down Joseph’s spine. He slid the magazine back into place and stepped down the center aisle of the case room, sidestepping limp bodies and blank faces absently.

Sebastian was a smart one, always had been, and when Joseph opened the door he did so slowly, peeking around it and finding his partner was gone. Joseph looked from the dark pool of blood where Sebastian had fallen to the warped lamp and on to the staggered footprints smeared on the floor. Joseph followed them across the room too slowly. A three second delay was all it took. Joseph tried to shoulder the door open, lifted his gun but he was too late. Sebastian threw his weight into the door, catching Joseph’s arms between it and the frame with enough force to send his gun flying.

Joseph cried out and struggled momentarily against Sebastian’s superior strength before he could free his arms. Despite Sebastian’s advantage Joseph found it surprisingly easy to throw his partner off balance, stepping away from the door when Sebastian pushed again and offering resistance only when the door was nearly shut so he could hear Seb’s head crack against the wood and his big body stumble. Opening the door after that was no problem at all despite the pain in Joseph’s arms and he made sure to kick the door open wide to get a good look at Sebastian  leaning against the wall and clutching his bloodied head.

It was so exciting, seeing Seb like this. It wasn’t often that Joseph got to see his partner bleed much less to this extent and when Sebastian lifted his head Joseph could feel his stomach flutter at the look of pain and fury on his face. It looked like the lamp had dealt more damage than Joseph had originally expected judging by the blood that ran freely down Sebastian’s face. His partner scowled and had to wipe blood from his eyes before he pushed himself away from the wall.

“Joseph…you motherfucker,” Sebastian hissed through clenched, red-stained teeth but didn’t seem capable of stringing together a coherent sentence in his slightly dazed state.

“Sebastian.” Joseph flexed his hands as he regained feeling in his fingers and took a slow step backwards. “It’s good to see you up and about, I was getting worried I might be taking too long tending to the others. I didn’t want to miss the opportunity to spend some quality time with my partner, my _buddy_. But I shouldn't have expected anything less from you; you’ve always been a stubborn bastard, Seb.”

As much as Joseph wanted to watch his partner seethe and to play his little roughhousing games, he knew that Sebastian was dangerous and, unlike Kidman, he wouldn’t be easily subdued. Joseph looked away for a split second catching the dark glint of his gun near Sebastian’s desk and only barely looking up in time to brace himself. There wasn’t much he could do to deflect the blow and he knew from watching Sebastian over the years that the man could do some serious damage with those fists of his. Experiencing that damage first-hand was not-surprisingly far less enjoyable.

Joseph could feel his teeth cracking beneath Sebastian’s knuckles and for a few moments he couldn’t see, couldn’t quite comprehend what had happened. He stumbled; tripping on the toppled coat rack and that little old couch Seb kept tucked beside his filing cabinets, and fell less than gracefully onto the unforgiving floor. Blood soaked into his clothes and wetted his face and he realized that he’d fallen much like Sebastian had earlier and shared in their mutual spilling of blood. When he spat out part of his tooth it settled in their puddle and he might have found that fascinating, how something as intimate as blood could be mixed so easily, but time was short.

“God damnit Joseph, what the...fuck...” Sebastian’s voice sounded strained as it bounced around between the heavy beat of Joseph’s pulse and when looked up at his partner he saw a broken man through a spider web of glass. “What the fuck is wrong with you?!”

Joseph’s hands slipped against the floor, smearing blood as he struggled to get out of reach but it was difficult to pinpoint his partner in this new fragmented world. It wasn’t until Sebastian yanked him up by the front of his shirt that Joseph realized the extent of his mistake. He’d grossly underestimated his partner somehow. A head injury like that would have rendered any other man more or less immobile and yet here Sebastian was, hoisting him up and slamming him against the filing cabinet so the cold metal bit into his spine and the back of his head. Joseph would be remembering that sound, the clatter and the ripping of his collar in Sebastian’s hands for a long time, he thought absently. It was a terrifying sound, the sound of helplessness.

Joseph grabbed at Sebastian’s arm, his gloved fingers digging into the hard muscle there as it settled against his throat and _pressed,_ pinning him. The struggle for breath gave him a heady rush despite his coughing and the look of disbelief on Sebastian’s face.

“Why are you doing this? Joseph! Joseph you fucker…” Sebastian leaned closer to limit Joseph’s kicking and stared him in the eye so that it was impossible for Joseph to see anything else even with his mangled glasses.

Joseph coughed with a spray of blood that only made Sebastian’s scowl deepen.

“Why not?” Joseph’s voice was thin, choked, and gurgled slightly with the blood from cuts in his cheek and cracked molars. “It’s just one of those things, Seb…those things you know are bad but you just have to indulge.” Joseph squirmed, trying to pull his head up and drag air in. “But you know _all about_ indulgences, don’t you, Sebastian?”

Joseph’s grin was wicked and while it sparked only a moment of shock in his partner it was worth it. Joseph continued to struggle until Sebastian leaned all of his weight into him, pressing close enough that his breath fogged Joseph’s cracked lenses.

“You’re _sick_ , Joseph. You’ve been sick all this time…”

“A-And you couldn’t help, huh?” Joseph croaked, his voice dwindling to nothing under his choked gasping and his hands started to tear at Sebastian’s arm and chest in earnest. The look on Sebastian’s face, fury melted into a cold understanding, sent a shiver of honest fear down Joseph’s spine and he opened his mouth again, his body jerking violently and cries drowned and gurgled in his throat.

Sebastian moved with power and finality despite the pain in his squinted eyes and the tremble of his hands, once, twice and blood welled up in Joseph’s mouth, spilling freely past his teeth.

“S-Seb—” Joseph tensed and crumbled easily when Sebastian stepped away, falling to his knees and down to press his forehead to the floor. His hands gripped at his stomach and he watched as blood dripped steadily from between his fingers.

“What? I—“ Joseph slumped, spat out mouthfuls of blood and struggled to twist and look up at his partner.

Sebastian had backed away, leaning heavily on his desk and tossing the knife among his papers carelessly, blood coloring everything he touched.

“I…I went through your desk, took out everything—the gun the—“ Joseph’s voice was thick and wet and Sebastian just stared at him with the same cold detachment Joseph had seen time and time again when Seb faced grief. He remembered seeing the knife just briefly, it had been tucked away safely in a sealed evidence bag and he hadn’t even considered it as anything but _evidence_. Untouchable.

“But…contamination of evidence—“

“Jesus fucking Christ, Joseph, you’re going to lay there—you’re going to talk to me about _contamination_ right now?” Sebastian’s voice sounded tight with more than anger and he shook his head. “Just shut the fuck up, alright?” He glared a few moments while Joseph fell on his side and clutched at his wounds before turning back to his desk and starting to rifle through his things. He tried his desk phone and frowned when he found it dead, turning his attention then to finding his cell. His movements grew more and more frantic, shoving things aside and letting them topple to the floor with a growing sense of desperation and it dawned on Joseph that Sebastian wanted to call for help and most likely not for himself.

“I took it,” Joseph wheezed and cringed at the pain in his gut. The room was growing fuzzy and it was difficult to focus. “Your phone…”

“Where is it?” Sebastian’s words snapped and crackled and Joseph squirmed again, rocked back to get a better look at him. “Where is it, Joseph?” Sebastian’s voice grew louder, sharper with fear and he rounded the desk again, came closer. His big heart was his biggest weakness, Joseph thought, always getting him tangled up in his feelings so he couldn’t think right. So he made mistakes.

“Joseph, I need to call an ambulance. Tell me where it is.” The force in Sebastian’s voice meant little when Joseph dragged one of his hands behind him; his words grew insignificant when he felt the hard butt of his partner’s revolver tucked into his waistband.

“Joseph, please—“ The click of the hammer was loud, resounding, and powerful and for that brief moment it was so easy to forget the pain and everything other than that simple sound and the unsteady weight of the gun in his hand. The room blurred and spun, shattered as it was by Joseph’s glasses, yet Sebastian’s voice was clear and definite, something steady to hold onto and an immovable target.

The first shot missed its mark, burrowing somewhere in Sebastian’s shoulder and causing the man’s body to jerk in a way Joseph had never seen before. Big Seb built strong and stubborn who could handle a beating and a fucking lamp to the head was nearly thrown off his feet with a howl. He staggered; half fell against his desk and looked at Joseph with wild eyes.

“Joseph! Son of a _bitch_!”

Joseph’s arms ached; his vision came and went with the beat of his heart in his ears and that beautiful click again.

“Joseph, wait! Just fucking wait a minute—“

Joseph shot again and a third time and closed his eyes against the red spinning and spatters. Adrenaline fed the steady buzzing in the back of his brain and when he opened his eyes again Sebastian was clinging to his desk, his legs buckled beneath him and body slumping. Blood spilled so freely, spread in wide blooms across his chest and dripped into paling eyes. Sebastian was twitching and joseph could hear his short gasps from where he lay in his own pool of blood. He might have tried to say something but it was so hard to focus and there was that _buzzing._ Always the buzzing.

“Heh…this is-is a little different than I planned. You always make things so difficult Seb.” Joseph could hardly understand his own voice at this point; found it difficult to concentrate enough to breathe. “Seb?” Blinking was a problem and Joseph struggled to open his eyes again but when he did Sebastian was leaning forward, staring at him and through him and at nothing at all. “That’s all right, Seb. That’s all right…”

Joseph took in a short, strained breath and choked on the sudden silence. The sounds are what stuck with him the most but the quiet was painful. Letting the gun fall from his fingers, Joseph pressed his slick palms to the floor and struggled to inch his way across the room. Each movement brought dizzying pain and a hazy darkness that skittered across his vision and blacked out the world. He wasn’t sure how long it took but eventually his fingers struck something other than wood and he looked up at his partner, watched the blood ooze down his face to pool in his eyes and drip off his chin, and sighed in relief.

“See, Seb?” Joseph said, his voice thin and frail at this point. “No…no problem.” Joseph struggled a few moments, trying to push himself to sit up but his body felt so heavy and his arms shook under the simple task.

“I guess…this is okay.” Joseph dragged himself closer, resting his head against Sebastian’s knee and feeling the blood drip steadily onto his cheek. It offered a welcome distraction from the chill numbing his fingers and creeping up his legs.

“Yeah, this is fine.” Joseph mumbled and blinked again but this time his eyes refused to open. “Just fine.”

Joseph hadn’t expected to make it out alive and hadn’t intended to leave Sebastian alone. He smiled knowing that he did something right, at least, in all his years of mistakes and miscalculations he’d managed to do this one thing right and though there was no one here to see it or to understand, it still felt...good. He couldn’t be saved but Sebastian could and that was what mattered.


End file.
